Sorry it took so long!

Well, we have two weeks of school under our belts now, and I have to say it is going very well. I was worried there would be a lot of oversleeping and missing the bus, because our whole family is nocturnal, but we have made it every day except one, and that was the second day, when the bus driver was at the stop a full fifteen minutes early. We got there a minute after she left. The first day she was twelve minutes early. The third day she was three minutes early (yay!). The fourth day she was seven minutes late. This week, she has been pretty much on time. Woo hoo!

The boys came home from their first day of school all excited about making a new friend on the bus. Chris said her name had "something to do with Alex," and she and John exchanged phone numbers -- on the first day! And I thought Chris was the smooth operator! Each day, when they came home, they told me excitedly about seeing their new friend from the bus again (it's Alexis, by the way, and she is in Chris' class.)

A new family has moved in down at the end of the cul-de-sac, and they have a son (I'll call him "A") going to kindergarten. Naturally, I hustled over there with a lasagna on their move-in day. "A" and the boys hit it off the very first day -- they all had Spider-Man backpacks. It was adorable!

I waited much too long to blog about this, so I have already forgotten so many things I wanted to immortalize here. John doesn't have many good things to say about school. He always asks me what I did while he was in school, and I try to make it sound as boring as possible, so he doesn't think he's missing out on anything. Jeff had lunch at the school with the boys this past Monday, and told me that a little girl there was all but throwing herself at John, and John was oblivious. Dad still takes precidence over chicks. I wonder when that will change?

Chris comes home with his mouth in fifth gear from the minute he steps off the bus, telling me about the great things they did in school that day (and that he saw His New Friend On The Bus again today). They have been learning a lot of songs, and Chris enjoys singing them to us, complete with jazz hands. Where is that darned camcorder??? I have GOT to get that recorded! Chris has his mother's innate ability to mis-hear song lyrics (the girl with colitis goes by?), so he sings about fishies "splishin' and a-splashin' and a-rockin' to the bee."

There is so much more I want to tell you -- too much for one entry, really, so I think I'll just string you along.

Pamper Me

I know y'all are just DYING to hear how the Kindergarten Orientation went on Thursday, but it was really quite uneventful, so instead, I bring you Diaper Day.

Child psychologists tell you it is quite common for children to regress into behaviors of their earlier years at times of great change, such as entering Kindergarten. This morning, John and Hannah decided that they were babies again. Chris, instead of regressing, has progressed into the role of their father. It is my layman's opinion that this turn of events has nothing to do with starting school next week, and everything to do with the fact that they stumbled across the long-forgotten stash of Pull-Ups and OverNights that I had tucked away on the shelf of Hannah's closet.

So, what does one do once they have rediscovered their infancy and have donned "dipies?" Why, they pee, of course! Hannah was able to accomplish this early on, before I suspected she would actually do it. Daddy Chris was responsible for changing her diaper (YES!), and once this task was done, Hannah stood next to me and I saw a far-away look in her eyes I haven't seen in about a year and a half. She was TRYING to pee in her "dipey" again. Incredulous, I said to her, "You're TRYING to pee, aren't you? I know you are, because I can see you making your trying-to-pee face!"

At this point, I took away their remaining Pull-Ups and OverNights, explaining that they can't waste them, they're very expensive. Huh? I don't know why I said that -- it's not like we need them anymore. But that started a new conversation with John. I told John when he was little, we went through thousands of diapers. He asked how we got so many diapers -- were we rich? So I told him, "Yes, back then Daddy and I both worked so that we could buy diapers."

You know, when you do the math... three kids, 2-1/2 years or so, maybe eight changes a day, that's around 25,000 diapers. Whenever someone scoffs that they are underpaid, from now on I'm going to retort, "Oh yeah? Well I was working for diapers!"